Squatter's landlord talks eviction again

ZEIA FLEMMING and her son had an unwelcome guest on Christmas Eve: not Santa Claus, but her landlord.

After knocking on the doors of the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) since January, when she was served with notice to leave the one-room shack where she has been squatting at Coconut Boulevard, Pleasantville, the mother of three was expecting a telephone call from the HDC.

And she got one, Flemming, 52, said, but after a rude awakening from the landlord.

Flemming said when she and her 11-year-old son woke up to a bright and windy Christmas Eve morning, she pushed open the door to her shack.

"He was waiting and he told me how he fed up waiting to take back he land. He said, 'How long again you will have to wait on HDC? I need to break this place.'"

Last week Flemming was beaming with happiness on High Street, San Fernando, after she got off a bus. HDC staff had called her to a meeting in Port of Spain, she said, where they told her all her documents had been approved. She must now wait on a telephone call, Flemming said, perhaps even before the Christmas holidays are over.

But today, Flemming said, she formed a circle with two of her fingers and told the landlord, "I'm this close to getting a house!"

However, she said, the landlord refused to budge, but threatened, "Don't let next year come and meet you here."

"With that, he leave and gone," she said.

Flemming told Newsday that some minutes after, she got a telephone call from Nancy Mohammed from the HDC.

"I was so excited. I say to myself, God work in mysterious ways. Look how the landlord was just here. and look how HDC call same time."

Flemming said Mohammed told her she had a Christmas hamper for her.